Above the Covenant homeworld the last great struggle was taking place, upon a ringed shaped world from eons ago, on it lay total destruction and hope. Earths last defender dove through the clouds carrying the redemption of an entire race on his back and there power in his hands.

~

The Grand Priests ship docked with the Mothership by a small catwalk. The first of the chosen Covenant crossed through the catwalk casting quick prayers to the warriors on the ring fighting their last battle. Sam was last in line, he had been given the duty of issuing the final prayers to the crew of the ship which would not be able to get out of the galaxy before its crew would be killed by the Ring's blast.

"May your souls find eternal enlightenment in the land of the God's," said Sam to the huge mass of Covenant who where being left behind. They were all on there knees with their heads on the ground saying prayers. "You are the apex of a race and you have done more then enough to ensure the survival of your race. May we forever praise your souls for their honorable duties." Sam then turned around and left the room for the catwalk.

~

As the Banshee slowed down and dropped down into a clearing about 2 kilometers from the command center. Josh carefully brought the Banshee to a stop hovering just above the ground and then lowered it to a touchdown. Quickly opening to hatch Josh jumped out onto the ground and ran to the bushes at the edge of the clearing for cover. His feet made a crunching noise as he ran over the lightly snow covered ground.

Overhead some plasma shots from the battle raging between the Covenant and Invaders flew overhead. Josh dove into the bushes and then lifted his head to look out over the area. As far as he could see in front of him was the lightly snow-covered ground of a forest composed mostly of what appeared to be evergreen trees. Far off in the distance a line of Invaders ran through the forest towards the battle, he had arrived unnoticed protected by the confusion on the ground.

"God help me," mumbled Josh slowly getting to his feet and moved slowly along the edge of the clearing in the direction that the Invaders had come from.

As Josh slowly made his way up through the edge of the forest he could hear the battle behind him slowly coming closer as the Covenant ran through the forest towards the command center.

Eventually as Josh rounded a small area of trees that jutted out into the clearing he came within sight of the command center. It appeared to be made up of a gray metal that remained shiny after eons of exposure to the rings hostile weather. The command center was not very tall only about 4 stories high but it was stretched almost a kilometer long away from Josh who was near one of its ends. The command on the closest end to Josh's location there as a heavy door resembling those found on Covenant ships except much larger, big enough for an entire battalion of soldiers to march through in a parade formation.

Slowly Josh continued along the edge of the clearing until he was within 200 feet from the huge doors. All around the entrance there were the bodies of Covenant soldiers who had been stationed there to defend the command center before the releasing of the Invaders. Also there were several destroyed tanks and ghosts laying in twisted pieces. Invaders surrounded the entrance surveying the area waiting to repel the thousands of enemies that would soon be swarming this position. Josh slowly pulled the plasma pistol from the Banshee out from his belt, it would be practically useless against the Invaders so he carefully hid waiting for the Covenant to reach the center.

~

Two Serph fighters broke through the atmosphere of the ring and quickly locked onto the location of the stolen Banshee. They made a quick pass overhead then confirmed that their target who had stolen the Banshee had escaped, quickly the launched a plasma torpedo destroying the Banshee and glassing a small area of earth around it.

~

"Swarm the command center, clear a passage to the command room," yelled an Elite commanding the huge attack group Elites that was now charging through the forest.

Up ahead there was the large gray metal building that was the command center, all around there were Invaders ready to defend the building at all costs. The Invaders began to charge towards the mass of Elites, the two forces meat about 30 feet away from the command center. It was clear that the Invaders were winning, the broken bodies of Elites were everywhere. The screams of Elites being killed pierced the air and sent shivers down Josh's spine.

Josh seeing his opportunity got up from his hiding spot and ran for the huge doors of the command center. In the huge battle not far away he was unnoticed. He slammed up against the doors and quickly went to work trying to find a way to open them. Suddenly t a mechanical sound came from inside and the doors opened. In front of Josh stood a lone Invader, Josh lifted his plasma pistol and fired off several shots. One of the shots hit the Invader in its leg, the negatively charged plasma molecules quickly attacked the positively charged particles of the Invaders leg causing if to "burn" off. The Invader who was caught by surprise fell to the ground but still tried to swipe at Josh who quickly ran around its body and took off down a long wide hallway towards what appeared to be an opening into a larger chamber on the other end.

~

Sam walked briskly through the passageways of the ship on his way to the catwalk. He kept his hand on his sword at his side incase he came across a crew member trying to escape through the catwalk to the Mothership. As he rounded a corner a Grunt ran out of a door and in the direction of the catwalk. Sam hauled his sword of its sheath and quickly caught up with it, in a clean swipe of the blade the Grunt's head rolled of its shoulders, the body quickly collapsed to the ground and blood poured out of the stump of a neck that remained.

"Bastard," said Sam as he slipped his sword back into its sheath.

Josh ran as fast as he possibly could, behind him he heard the strange shrieking noises made by the Invader on the ground. Afraid what may happen if he stopped Josh kept running, In front of him two Invaders ran out of the chamber that he was running for, one of them was taller then the other and appeared to be much more aggressive. Josh lifted his pistol and fired off half a dozen shots at the larger one but they appeared to have no affect. Josh kept running and firing with no fear of what he knew was about to happen.

The smaller of the two Invaders jumped at Josh but missed him and slammed into the floor hard, it lay as though dazed for several seconds then got up and ran towards Josh who by this time was near the entrance of the room. The larger one stepped out in front of Josh and brought its arm up preparing to catch Josh as he desperately tried to turn on the floor but it was too slippery, he slid and slammed into the chest of the Invader. The Invader brought down his arm and slammed it into Josh's back causing him to fall to the ground he tried to grab onto the Invaders body to haul himself back up but with another vicious blow Josh was thrown away from the Invader.

Josh lay motionless on the floor blood flowed freely form his nose and his mouth, he was barely breathing. The two Invaders turned and walked towards the entrance of the command center leaving Josh's motionless body behind

~

Josh opened up his eyes slowly clenching his teeth in pain as he got up. About 100 feet down the hall from where he stood the two Invaders walked towards the entrance. Josh turned and looked into the cavernous chamber in front of him. Through the doorway there was a suspended walkway leading to a large console.

Josh stumbled onto the walkway and slowly made his way across to the console, He gasped for breath and his face was near white form blood loss. Above the console suspended in mid air by a strange light there was a small cylindrical metal object. Josh starred at it as he dragged his half dead body towards it.

The larger of the two Invaders turned around and saw Josh within feet of the console. With a loud screech it ran as fast as it could towards Josh who now had the Object in his hand. Josh heard the screech and quickly found a slot for the object and slammed it down inside it.

~

Sam walked across the catwalk, halfway across he stopped and turned to look out through one of the many windows that lined it. Off in the distance the God's Ring sat almost peacefully in space, suddenly what appeared to be four bright beams of light shot out from four side of the ring and met in the middle. Suddenly there was a huge explosion and in a bright white light the God's Ring went off.